Garbage Spirits
by silverdragon8
Summary: This is an AU for Spirited Away. Haku and Chichiro find themselves struggling to live with a band of thugs and ruffians in a garbage dump.
1. After Sundown

Garbage Spirits  
  
A young teenager stooped down on the orange earth and raked his fingers over the ground searching for a something shiny that had caught the rays of the sun just a moment before. His lips turned down in a frown as it was only a piece of glass that had shone so brilliantly. Thin fingers reached out to grab it, none-the-less, but they stopped as the light was suddenly vacuumed from the glass. The boy's head turned up and bangs fell across his cold green eyes. The last sprays of orange and yellow proceeded to fall quickly into a deep red behind the mounds of garbage.  
  
The sun was sinking.  
  
He stood up and shook the dust from his pants and made his way over to a pile of scrap just come in a few days before. He hadn't 'inspected' this one yet. With all hopes, he might find something useful there. Of course, this wasn't the main reason for wanting to rummage through this heap. No. This pile was such a massive mountain that he could climb to the top and watch the sun be eaten away. With a small piece of dirtied cloth, he wrapped his hands and scaled up the sharp toothed mountain. Hopefully no one would see him. He could always make the excuse as coming here for a late rummage.but he knew that curfew was a sunset. A chuckle surprised him as it vibrated up his throat. Did he even really give a damn?  
  
No. Of course not.  
  
His hand reached up and grabbed the last piece of jagged metal that would skewer his hand, and pulled himself up to see the something he waited all day to see. Beauty. Those colors. They filled him up with calm and blissful hope, but he was only too sad to have only caught the last of it as it sunk behind the haze of the dump. It was a tainted beauty from his view, but from someone surrounded by filth.something a little dusty looked as good as new.  
  
And so the last bloodied red rays seeped into a deep purple and the young teen slumped over into the cushion of what used to be a car seat. Right before he closed his eyes.is when he saw something. Two little somethings moved to the entrance of the dump. His eyes narrowed to a slit and then widened in horror.  
  
******  
  
"Come on Chichiro!" A young girl dressed in red called out playfully in the night.  
  
"Oh! Stop it will you!"  
  
The girl in red stuck out her tongue and held up a small bag of crinkled plastic. "I'll give you the last one if you go in there. Come on! I dare you!"  
  
"But Rin! I'm the one that bought those." Chichiro jump up but was sadly just out of reach from the taller Rin's hand that was held up high and taunting. "And you ate them all!"  
  
"Tsh! Then fine! Go and have it!" With that Rin tossed back her hand and launched the bag off into the darkness with a triumphant yell.  
  
"I'm not going to go get that." Chichiro crossed her eyes in defiance. "I can live without one little piece of chocolate."  
  
"Oh.but I forgot to mention." The older girl's smile widened and her eyes held a frightful look of teasing. "Your money was in there too!"  
  
Chichiro's jaw dropped down in utter disbelief. That was her stepfather's money! He'd kill her without another thought, so she raced off hoping to find the small candy bag that contained the few bills to save her life. A few threats and the waves of a fist had assured that.  
  
Rin's hideous cackle faded off into the night.  
  
Chichiro groaned and groped along the ground where she thought the bag might have landed. Rin was such a pain sometimes, but she couldn't say anything because Rin was the favorite child anyway. Well.that's what her stepdad said anyhow. Mom didn't say much at all anymore.  
  
******  
  
The boy's thoughts whirled as fast as his feet slipped and stumbled down the shrapnel heap. The piles of scrap were just a blur on the outskirts of his eyes. How insane! Stupid, stupid girl! He hadn't made out exactly who was heading into the dump, but he could see from the persons' features they were both girls. Girls didn't belong here.ever. Especially not now. If ever.especially not now. The last rays of light had slipped away just seconds before he had seen them. Stupid, stupid! Didn't everyone know?! Everyone should know. This wasn't the place for.  
  
"Ukah!"  
  
He skidded to a stop.  
  
"Ukah! Where ya been man? Yu's been lookin' for you!"  
  
Ukah's eyes darted around and saw a small boy crouching down on a mountain of stacked tires. The tires swayed a little under his weight, which wasn't much at all. Quickly, Ukah put on a slate face and walked over to the boy.  
  
"Dun look at me like that man." He drawled on. "I'm just the messenger, hah! But you always look like you're about to murder someone man! Lighten up!" The young boy bursted with laughter and the tires shook underneath him.  
  
"What's Yu want?"  
  
The boy reached up with a hand and scratched at the dirty skin under his bandana, and then two more gripped at the tires to steady himself, and then another pointed down at Ukah. "Look, man, you know what happens when you're late for the scouting instructions. Yu's looking to give you a good.a good-ah.." The many armed boy's eyes shifted away and far past Ukah into the dark. "Man.is that a?"  
  
Ukah's eyes widened and he lunged out at the tower of tires pushing them over and rushing away not caring if the spider armed boy was hurt. He had seen the girl. Now what? Those cold green eyes darted around and around in the dark that flooded his vision.  
  
There. There she was.  
  
His feet drove him towards the stooping girl whose hands sprawled across the ground and tackled her down into a pile which shielded them from plain view. She twisted and tried to shriek, but her eyes turned from bewildered fear to recognition. Her mouth opened slightly as if to speak, but a long single finger dirtied with the earth covered her lips.  
  
"Don't.don't say my name."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Author's Note: Well, its been a long time since I've done one of these. How do you like it? This story might actually replace 'I Work for Spirits'. I don't tend to update as much when I have more then one story going, and I like this one better, don't you think? And remember, notes and reviews speed up the process! 


	2. The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Garbage Spirits  
Chapter 2: The Difference Between Girls and Boys  
  
Chichiro squirmed a little under the boy's weight having been toppled over upon when he tackled her. He didn't weigh much, this boy, for, from what it seemed from his ribs poking into her sides, he didn't eat much. Her lips stayed tightly sealed as her mind tried to figure out what was going on. The boy atop her began looking around with a cool calm gaze, but his eyes were wide and frantic. She saw his eyes narrow and his hand that had silenced her scream moved down and around her waist tightly. The other hand soon followed, and in a minute she was tossed aside and upon something that had a little bounce to it. The small girl found herself inside a rusted old car with a few pieces of mildewed seat cushions left inside. Her lips turned down in a frown ready to protest the uncleanly-ness, but she had forgotten all about the grossness of the situation as a loud groan escaped her mouth. An elbow had jabbed itself in her side as the boy flung himself in after her. Again, there was a hand clamped over her mouth.  
  
He shoved his lips near her ear and spoke quiet and forcefully. "You idiot.you fool. Do you know what's going to happen to you if they find you?" He shook her in a fury with his free arm. He was quite strong for such a young and lithe boy. "You don't want to know.girls don't belong here. Do you know why? Do you know?" He shook her again until her eyes widened and she nodded in understanding.  
  
There was still a dull pain where his elbow had landed and she thought she might cry. Not from the stinging pain, but from the words whispered in her ear. She knew very well what he meant.or at least thought she did, and various horror stories she had seen on the news scrolled through her mind.  
  
"Listen to me now.I'm not going to hurt you. You have to do what I say or." His whisper faded off into nothingness and his eyes stared off into the same. "Listen, you can't leave now. There's a barrier around this dump once the sun goes down. Understand?"  
  
She nodded her head.  
  
"Good.This place changes at night.Its." His voice froze off cold in an instant as he heard a rustle of some sort very near to the car they lay huddled in. "I'm sorry I have to do this."  
  
Chichiro's eyes widened, again, in horror. What was he so sorry about? Why was his voice so grave? And his eyes.his eyes as he pulled away and reached into the pocket of his pants looked so.so cold! What was he going to do to her?  
  
Her eyes followed his hand in horror as his fingers retreated from the pocket and pulled out slowly dragging out a small thing object which he held shakingly in his hands. With a small motion, a shining blade flipped out and it was much larger than a simple pocket knife. "Don't.please.don't." Her cries were but a whisper, and as much as she tried to back away from him, there was no where to go. He advanced on her quickly and grabbed her roughly by the ponytail hanging from the back of her head.  
  
****  
  
His hand gripped the handle of the knife tightly as he saw through the dark brown hair of the girl before him. Moments before, his ears picked up the shouting of his name, and, at that moment, his mind boiled up a plan to save his hide and the girl's. Ukah had noticed that she had on a baggy set of clothes consisting of a t-shirt with a green stripe across it and a pair of baggy khaki shorts. Still being rather young, the girl hadn't quite 'developed' the features that would make her a woman.and with a short trim, she could be easily mistaken for a boy. He wished he had time to explain now, but the voice that called after him was getting closer and closer with each strand of hair he butchered. "Listen.Chichiro." His voice rasped in a hurried manner. "You're name is Sen, get it?" He frowned in disarray as the only reply he received from her was a string of sobs and choked tears. He didn't have time for this, so he shook her violently again. "You listen here you stupid girl.your name is Sen, and if you don't stop crying that person calling my name is going to take you back to camp and rape you. They might even kill you after that, so stop acting like a little girl.your name is Sen, and you're a boy now." His words were harsh, cruel, and extremely necessary. He had to make her listen before they reached him which was now.He heard the footsteps and backed away from Sen throwing the wad of hair in his hand down to the dirtied floor. His head glanced back over his shoulder and saw her wiping away her tears. He nodded and walked out of the broken down worthless car.  
  
"Yo, Ukah! What ya think you're pulling man! Come to find ya and ya knock meh down like that! What's up with you tonight?" The spider armed boy slid across the ground using his many arms and looked a bit pissed from the furrow of his brows.  
  
"Shut up Kaji.I don't have time for you." Ukah crossed his arms and spread his legs starring down at the insect. "You saw him, the intruder. I had to go get him before he escaped. You know Yu's rules as much as I do.No one leaves past sun down."  
  
"Right, right." He scratched his grimy head with only of his many arms starring crucially at the boy before him. "Well, whatever.lemme help you with 'im then. He in that car? Let's bring 'im back then." Kaji made his way over to the busted up automobile until Ukah stepped in front of him.  
  
"I think I can handle this." He shouted out to the girl into the car. "Hey, you.get out of there. Come with us or we'll force you out." Ukah waited, and in a few moments, a frail skinny looking boy wandered out looking scared for his life.  
  
AN: ah.so I finally updated, and its all thanks to that one person who IMed me. You know who you are. ^_^ See reviews, emails, and IMs motivate me to update faster. I'll be gone for awhile on vacation, so I expect lots of reviews for another chapter. ^_- 


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